GEN News Highlights

23andMe Scores NIH Grant to Pump Up Genetic Discovery Database

(Page
1
of
1)

The NIH has given 23andMe a $1,367,504 grant for a two-year project to support further development of the personal genetics firm's web-based database and research engine for genetic discovery. The company ultimately hopes that the project will beget a database containing genotypes for 40 million SNPs and information on thousands of diseases and traits for over 400,000 people.

23andMe says the grant will allow the firm to refine its survey questions to better find novel genetic associations, and support improvements to survey infrastructure and the creation of new tools for phenotypic data collection. The company also will use the funds to enable discovery of rare variants associated with disease using whole-genome sequence data and imputation. By imputing genotypes using data from large public and internal sequencing projects, the firm says it plans to provide increased power to detect novel associations.

Finally, the company will also use the funds in its efforts to collaborate with academic and commercial partners to test and refine the Research Accelerator, which the company says provides access to aggregate de-identified genotype and phenotype data from customers participating in 23andMe’s research program. The firm says it will give a limited set of partners early access to the Research Accelerator and will create reports and tools so that partners will be able to see which single nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with conditions of interest, find conditions associated with variants in individual genes, and view other data, all while protecting individual-level information.

“This grant from the NIH recognizes the ability of 23andMe to create a unique, web-based platform that engages consumers and enables researchers from around the world to make genetic discoveries," Anne Wojcicki, the firm's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.

23andMe, along with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others, recently collaborated with the NIH in a study, published in Nature Genetics on July 27, that led to the discovery of 24 genetic risk factors involved in Parkinson’s disease including six that had not previously been identified.

Jobs

GEN Jobs powered by HireLifeScience.com connects you directly to employers in pharma, biotech, and the life sciences. View 40 to 50 fresh job postings daily or search for employment opportunities including those in R&D, clinical research, QA/QC, biomanufacturing, and regulatory affairs.

Be sure to take the GEN Poll

Climate Change

How would you describe the researchers response to the 2°C global temperature target?

They are right on the mark. A 2°C global temperature rise will push us further over the edge. We have to set a lower target.

A 2°C global temperature rise is a reasonable target on which to focus in order to diminish the impact of climate change.

We have already gone beyond the threshold for getting a handle on climate change. So now we just need to learn how to adapt to the inexorable climatic changes with which we will have to deal going forward.

They are right on the mark. A 2°C global temperature rise will push us further over the edge. We have to set a lower target.

38.9%

A 2°C global temperature rise is a reasonable target on which to focus in order to diminish the impact of climate change.

22.2%

We have already gone beyond the threshold for getting a handle on climate change. So now we just need to learn how to adapt to the inexorable climatic changes with which we will have to deal going forward.

If you have any questions about your subscription, click
hereto email us or call at (914) 740-2189.

You may also be interested in subscribing to the GEN magazine, an indispensable
resource for everyone involved in the business of translating discoveries at the
bench into solutions that fight disease and improve health, agriculture, and the
environment. Subscribe
today to see why over 60,000 biotech professionals read GEN to
keep current in the areas of genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, biomarker discovery,
bioprocessing, molecular diagnostics, collaborations, biotech business trends, and
more.